Some Day We Will Replace That Hideous Window by Virginia Watts

thin stemmed yellow daisies
Yellow Wildflowers by U.S. Forest Service. CC license.

 

My mother has forgotten about the sun
Her gaze gauzy, living room window
a bay shape she has always detested
Here comes the mailman

My father is in the Rehab Center
Our king and conqueror
of transient ischemic attacks
Your father’s strokes are just mini strokes

Stacked in a corner of oil stained garage
Forest green plastic lawn chairs
unparted for cobwebby eons
Virginia, what are you doing out there?

On the small concrete front porch
of that one bath, three bedroom rancher
I place two empty chairs in the sunshine
as white spiders skitter blinded down the legs

Come outside, mother, it’s so nice
Those yellow flowers by the lamppost are pretty
What are they?

My mother’s mouth is a fist

When we were little truant kids
my older brother would make his fist talk
by moving his thumb up and down
You’re in big trouble. Mom says you have to go to be early again. Sucker!

My mother lifts her eyes out of the fathoms
Those?
They came here on their own
I don’t know why


Virginia Watts
Virginia Watts is the author of poetry and stories found in Illuminations, The Florida Review, The Blue Mountain Review, The Moon City Review, Permafrost Magazine, Palooka Magazine, Streetlight Magazine, and Sky Island Journal, among others. Winner of the 2019 Florida Review Meek Award in nonfiction and nominee for Best of the Net Nonfiction 2019 and 2020, her poetry chapbooks The Werewolves of Elk Creek and Shot Full of Holes are upcoming for publication by The Moonstone Press.

Follow us!
Facebooktwitterinstagram
Share this post with your friends.
Facebooktwitterpinterest

2 thoughts on “Some Day We Will Replace That Hideous Window by Virginia Watts”

  1. I pick wild flowers from the grass, where no one planted them. I’m glad they come, though I don’t know why….

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *